Responsibility or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Time Travel
by Xorn
Summary: A different kind of Time Travel fic. It's surprising how easy it is to use your time travel semblance frivolously if you unlock it BEFORE anything bad happens.
1. With Great Power

**So, my other story that's currently updating has been stalled by my terrible writing, so here's... whatever this is. Yay?**

* * *

 _With great power comes great responsibility_ – X-Ray and Vav, Chapter 2

* * *

It's another lazy afternoon after school as I enter Tukson's Book Trade. I make a beeline for the comics section, because a new chapter of X-Ray and Vav was released today! The big Faunus man chuckles as he sees me go.

"You here for the new Chapter, Jaune?"

I grin in response.

"You know it!"

Tukson recoils dramatically.

"Woah there, kid! Turn down that smile! You just about blinded me with it!"

I laugh at his terrible joke as my eyes trace the comics on the shelves… woah! There's a copy of Chapter Two here! I never got a chance to read that one! But… I only have enough money for one chapter, and my allowance is given on a weekly basis. If I get Chapter Two, I'll be a chapter behind everyone, and that means SPOILERS!

Oh well. I've gone this far without reading Chapter Two, what could it hurt?

* * *

As I walk back home, I'm thoroughly engrossed in the comic, so much so that I don't see a red blur in front of my before I collide with it. I go sprawling, mind in a daze. Crap, did I just get hit by a car!? I reflexively activate my semblance, and just barely catch a girl's voice saying "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry are you oka-"

And then, time reverses. A few seconds earlier, I take two steps to the left, to avoid the… car I guess?

And then, I am promptly impacted by a red blur.

"Oh my gosh it happened again I thought I move-"

Time reverses. I can just make out the face of a cute redhead a few years younger than me. So not a car, but a speed semblance? In any case, I take four steps to the right this time. That should do it.

The red blur impacts me again. Hey, is this girl a heat-seeking missile or something?

"Ok, seriously I'm so sorry I was sure I corrected for it this time-"

Time reverses. Let's just take a different route home. I stand up at Tukson's bookstore, buy the comic again, and make my way home. This time around I have an uneventful trip.

Oh right, I should probably explain. My semblance is time travel. I can go back in time however far I want, though I've never gone farther back than an hour. I discovered it during initiation at Signal, and it's pretty much the only reason I didn't fail. It's pretty useful, honestly! I can even use it to help me on tests!

Wait. Hang on. That sounded wrong. It's not like I look at the answers to tests and then go back! I just look at the test to make sure I study the right stuff and then go back. It's not cheating! Really! I'm not a bad person!

In any case... my name is Jaune Arc, and Time Travel has made my life fantastic!

* * *

It's another lazy day after school as I finally put the finishing touches on my baby~! With a final click as I precisely slip the Dust core into place and close the hatch, Crescent Rose is complete! I smile as I fold it into its carrying position which is SO COOL and slip it onto my back.

Oh my gosh it feels like I'm a real huntress!

"Uncle Qrow! It's finished! I'm gonna get some dust to shoot with!"

He gives a lazy wave as I dash out of the building in a storm of petals.

I dash through the streets of Vale at top speed, apologizing to pedestrians as I barely avoid them.

"Sorry! Sorry! So sorry! Excuse me!"

Then I round a corner and slam into someone at full speed.

I immediately start to apologize. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry are you oka-"

And then I feel it. The familiar tugging sensation. Time reverses by about five seconds. Ugh, not again!

Oh well, at least I can dodge him this time! I move slightly to the right as a fly down the street.

And then, we collide a second time.

"Oh my gosh it happened again I thought I move-"

And then time reverses a second time. Please don't make me be trapped in this stupid loop for hours again. I move to the left, a bit further this time. Third time's the charm?

And yet again we collide. Is this guy trying to get hit by me or something?

"Ok, seriously I'm so sorry I was sure I corrected for it this time-"

And then, time reverses. Here we go again…

*CRUNCH*

I look around, getting my bearings. I'm back at Signal? Anyways, what was that… noise…

I look down at the now fractured dust core.

"I hate my life…"

The entire annex for weapons crafting shakes as the dust core detonates.

I suppose I should explain. My name is Ruby Rose, and since about two years ago I have been experiencing random bouts of time travel. There's never any rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes I go back a few seconds, sometimes it's an hour. Sometimes I have to repeat the same events for as many as twenty loops.

My name is Ruby Rose, and time travel is ruining my life.

* * *

 **So yeah. This is a thing. I guess to some extent it's a jab at the "Time Travel Jaune" stories or something?**

 **I don't really mean it to be an attack or anything though. More just a funny story that I can update as the mood strikes me. I'm currently trying to work out the next chapter for A Hollow Remnant, but it's being a bit troublesome to find a good stopping point.**

 **Basically, this is a story where Jaune unlocks the Time Travel abilities we all know he OBVIOUSLY has while testing into Signal. This basically lets him cheese his way through hunter school through liberal use of his OP semblance.**

 **Meanwhile, Ruby ends up looking like a clumsy idiot because for some UNKNOWN REASON, she keeps getting shot backwards in time to seemingly random points with no rhyme or reason.**

 **Why Ruby? ...Because she's the actual main character of the series?**

 **Or maybe it's because when I first had this idea all we knew about the [Silver Eyes] was that they somehow froze the dragon on top of Beacon so obviously they must be TIMEY WIMEY EYES. It's the only option.**

 **No but seriously this is just an excuse for me to turn this into a Lancaster fic hehe xd**

 **What? Yes it's Lancaster! Didn't you see the THREE cliche colliding love interest scenes?**


	2. Comes Pointless Mundane Uses

I dodge past the flaming sword, narrowly avoiding death. I counter his attack with several blows from my own blade. He raises his free hand for some kind of attack, but I'm behind him, so he won't hit- OH COME ON! That hitbox is insane! Stupid grabs! Aaand I'm dead.

Time reverses. My grip tightens on the controller as I dodge backwards, avoiding the grab. I roll forward, readying a strong attack, and- WHAT!? It breathes fire!? Since when!?

Time reverses. I dodge to the right, avoiding it. "Grimm souls is hard, but fair" they said! They obviously never fought the last boss!

* * *

I lay down in bed for the twelfth time.

Time reverses.

…

I lay down again.

Time reverses.

…

Yeah, I think I'm done here. Guess I'll just study for the test tomorrow.

* * *

"Alright kiddos! The weapon crafting annex got exploded violently yesterday. Accident with a dust core. So! You brats are gonna help me fix the building."

There's a simultaneous groan from everyone at Professor Branwen's declaration.

A dust core explosion though… those hurt a lot. I should know. I accidentally blew mine up when I first tried to modernize Crocea Mors.

I tap Professor Branwen's shoulder on my way to the building. "Is the person who had the accident alright? Dust core explosions can be pretty bad."

"Huh? Yeah. Ruby's pretty durable. She's my niece, after all. She's just upset about her weapon exploding."

That's a relief. If it was a serious accident I might have tried to go back and stop it. In this case, though, it's better for someone to learn about the danger of dust safely like this than on the battlefield.

"Come to think of it, though, yours never exploded, did it, Arc? So how do you know what it feels like?"

"Um… you know, I just… read about it! In a book!"

"Uh-huh."

Crap! Abort! I don't want to explain my cheating on tes- I mean, definitely NOT cheating on tests, to my parents!

Time reverses.

* * *

"Miss Rose, why don't you read the next part of the book."

I stop my doodling and quickly find the place we were at. Hey! I can multitasking, you know!

Besides, the less time spent reading "I, Port: Memoirs of a Huntsman," the better.

…

There it is!

"The beasts had surrounded us! It seemed I had no choice. Stripping my shirt to reveal my chiseled phy- phisikay? Physics?"

"Physique, Miss Rose."

"R-right. ...my chiseled Physique, I flung myself into the midst of the-" Oh my gosh that's a naughty word!

What do I do!? I can't just read something like that out loud! But the teacher is looking at me expectantly, so…

Agh! There's no choice! I'm gonna say it!

"D-d-" I stutter.

A familiar tugging sensation is felt, but I can't stop the word from leaving my lips.

"-damn!" I exclaim, the word finally escaping my lips.

Silence.

"...Really, Miss Rose, if you don't wish to read, just say so."

My face almost explodes from all the blood rushing to it.

* * *

 **Alright, here we are. Chapter 2.**

 **These chapters have been turning out shorter than my other stories usually are, but I don't want to pointlessly drag it out.**

 **To the guy who asked about it: Yes. That is what the reference.**


	3. Repetition is the key

**Oh hey new chapter I guess.**

* * *

"Rubes. Hey, Ruby, wake up! It's time for dinner! Honestly! You just sleep whenever you want, don't you?"

I wake up to Yang shaking me. My sister has an annoyed look on her face, and she gives a big sigh as I sit up.

I guess she's kinda right to be upset with me. A normal person shouldn't sleep at random times throughout the day, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. But, a normal person doesn't have to deal with a few hours randomly being added to their day by time travel. It may not cause any physical exhaustion, but the obnoxious rewinding of time that I deal with still causes mental fatigue. In the end, I wound up deciding that sticking to a normal sleep schedule was pointless, so I've started taking random naps throughout the day. I would have been too embarrassed a few years ago to do something like sleep in class, but… well, I'm already kind of infamous for the seemingly random outbursts and spasms caused by the rewinds.

"It really isn't that big of a deal Yang. I just sleep when I feel like it. Anyways, what's for dinner?" I ask, climbing out of bed and stretching.

Yang grins at me. "It's a new recipe Dad's trying out. I got a taste earlier, and I'm pretty sure you're gonna lo-"

Time reverses.

How obnoxious, cutting her off in mid-sentence. Doesn't this strange cosmic torturer of mine have any manners?

* * *

I suddenly sneeze, allowing the boss to get another combo off on me. Weird. That sneeze didn't happen the first time. I have to wait another few seconds, and then-

Time reverses.

I pause the game before sneezing. There we go. I wipe my nose on my sleeve and unpause. Seriously though, who designed this boss? While an opponent who can teleport and do massive damage in an instant is cool on paper, even someone with my semblance has immense difficulty fighting it. What the heck is David Studios thinking? Stardust Huntsmen was a really well balanced and unique game up to this point, but this is just ridiculous!

* * *

My eyes snap open for the third time. What the heck? A second rewind to exactly the same point? Why? I can feel my left eye twitch a bit.

"WOAhkay, you're awake!" Yang says, stumbling backwards a bit in surprise. "Um… that's a real angry look you've got there sis! I'm not here to prank you or anything! I promise! Just here to let you know it's dinner time!"

I sit up, trying to smile. "Uh, yeah Yang. Sorry about that! I was just, uh, remembering something! Yeah… ehehe…"

"Somehow, that fake smile is more scary…"

* * *

I continue to avoid the boss's attacks. How am I supposed to defeat this guy!? Not only is he able to shrug off my attacks without difficulty, but his aura ghost seems able to teleport around and instantly attack! Letting him get close would only wipe me out in one blow…

But wait. David Studios is extremely fond of putting hidden solutions to bosses in their levels! Back in the second game, the way the final boss was best defeated was by luring him into a volcano and forcing him into the lava! Stardust Huntsmen doesn't boast the same open world of the second game, but it does have a day/night cycle. I thought that gimmick was just around to force the players to figure out the attack by the Sun Spirit on their own, but… if I remember from the first game, this guy was a vampire, so he's weak to sunlight!

Then… all I have to do is stall for time! I can do at least that much!

* * *

Time keeps rewinding kinda randomly for the next hour of normal non-rewindy time. Evenings just are the worst! There are almost always rewinds around this time of day. It sometimes happens throughout the day - most commonly school days during third period - but it's less common and only lasts for around fifteen minutes of real time at most. There can be any number of repeats during that period, but it stops for a while after that, usually. In the evenings however, I've seen the repeats last for up to eight hours of real time.

Speaking of patterns, I have noticed some limitations to the rewinds. Or, rather, there's one major limitation that causes other limitations. Whatever causes time to reverse seems to tend towards short spurts of time being rewound, rather than longer periods. I believe I know the reason for this: the force behind this cannot reverse time again until the point where it last reversed time has been reached. That is to say, a rewind cannot take place within a rewind.

It's just a guess, of course - I haven't experienced a double rewind yet, so unless it happens in the future it's likely impossible. Regardless of whether or not those limitations exist, a picture is taking form. There's a pattern. I just have to figure it out…

* * *

I avoid one more teleporting attack as the night cycle ends. As expected, the game fades into a cutscene.

" **World Spirit!** Stop time!"

Wait, what!?

The screen turns black and white as the villain steps forward, grinning.

"Fool! You thought you could escape me forever!? Useless! Useless, useless, useless!"

He grips the throat of the character I was playing.

"Now, show me your pitiful face! Time resumes!"

Laughter.

"Heh… you're the fool here! I figured out your semblance a while ago! You may be all powerful… but you forgot! Your semblance threw off your perception of time, so you didn't notice! You didn't realize you had run out of time! The Sun has risen! It's over!"

"What!? Impossible! I can't die like this! I … I WILL BE! NUMBER OOooone…"

The vampire crumbles to ashes.

 **Secret Ending: Joestar Secret Technique!**

Secret ending!? Huh?

* * *

...Things make a lot more sense now. The first fight with the boss was supposed to be a scripted loss….

How was I supposed to know that!? I hate it when games do stuff like that. You blow a bunch of healing items and then discover that using them was pointless anyways.

Ugh.

Anyways, the main character's last minute power-up made the boss fight a lot easier… it felt kind of like a cop out though.

Oh well.

Still, a semblance that stops time, huh?

* * *

I sit down to take the final exam for literature class. Come on Ruby! You can do this! I write my name on the test booklet, ready to begin-

Time reverses.

I write my name again.

Time reverses.

...I hate everything.

* * *

"Yang! You're up! You got a choice for your opponent?"

The girl sitting next to me claps me on the shoulder. Of course she wants to fight me again. Why wouldn't she!?

Normally, I wouldn't mind the attention from someone as beautiful as Yang Xiao-Long. However...

"Come on then, superboy! I'll give you a run for your money this time!" she says with a grin, eyes turning red.

 _She's so obnoxious!_ Her fighting style is aggravating to deal with - even if I avoid one hit with my semblance, she follows up with another with ridiculous speed. Even with my semblance, it's impossible to avoid getting hit!

In addition to that, her semblance makes it so that if I'm not careful she'll bring down my aura in a single blow towards the end of the fight. She's honestly the only student in the school that I can't just brute force with my semblance - at least to my knowledge.

Fighting Yang requires ridiculously tight strategy and usually over a hundred rewinds with my semblance - and at that point I actually start to get a bit of a headache.

Of course, that's not the only bad part of fighting her…

"Alright Superboy..." she says, a grin on her face.

...there's also the nicknames…

"... _Arc_ you ready for this!?" She finishes, smashing her fists together.

...and then there's the puns.

"...Professor Branwen, mark this fight up as a victory for Yang. That pun physically hurt me in such an extreme manner that it completely decimated my aura," I mutter.

"Come on! It wasn't that bad!" she yells in protest.

"It was pretty bad. So, same bets as usual? I finished Stardust Huntsmen last night, so I kinda want to borrow the sequel."

"Fine then! You already know what I'm going to ask!"

"Yeah, yeah. The secret of my semblance will be made known to you if you win."

"Hey, quit flirting and fight already!" someone yells.

We both shrug, and spring into action.

* * *

To anyone else, it looked like a graceful dance of weapons and martial arts. To me, it was a sloppy slugfest consisting primarily of me being punched and rewinding to avoid being punched.

I've watched video replays of me fighting in the past - but in reality I'm nowhere near that graceful. I duck and weave, dodging through Yang's endless flurry of blows, capitalizing on any openings I can find, through the majestic art that is trial and error.

Finally, I see my chance. I slash a small piece of hair off and duck back, waving it in front of her.

She freezes, eyes turning red and aura flaring.

"YOUUUU!" she would have said, had I not taken that small window of opportunity to act. I whip the sheath of Crocea Mors up from my side, morphing it into hand cannon form.

Yang's eyes widen as my weapon fires blasting her backwards and burying her in the wall of the classroom.

That was a ridiculously close fight. My head is killing me; I must have reversed time far more than a hundred times that fight.

I lower my weapon, just in time to see Yang flying at me, still ablaze.

Time reverses.

Rather than lowering my weapon, I shift it to shield form to take the impact. I see her surprised face just for the time it takes for my shield to return to cannon form and blast her into the ceiling.

"Two shots," I mutter, "definitely worth it."

Then I collapse from a splitting headache.

* * *

The temporal spasms continue for who knows how long. I finally manage to slam my eyes shut around the fiftieth rewind. I know it's still happening. Somehow I can still tell.

My head feels like it's about to split open, and I feel a pressure building behind my eyes. The rewinds stop, but the pressure is still there. Building and building and building until finally-

I scream and the world is engulfed in silver.

* * *

 **Well this one was longer than normal.**

 **Sorry for delays. had writers block/exams.**

 **Still, things are happening now, huh?**

 **We see here some of the limitations of Jaune's semblance. Can't use it for too long without rest, and double loops are a no go. As for what happens next, now that Ruby's eyes have done the thing... who knooows~**


End file.
